


Keep Them Close Forever

by Flick (raynon)



Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album)
Genre: Gen, Underage Tattooing, good ol' family bonding the Ghoul way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26010400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raynon/pseuds/Flick
Summary: Ghoul and the Girl have the day to themselves, so they spend it doing art.
Relationships: Fun Ghoul & Motorbaby | Grace (Danger Days)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15





	Keep Them Close Forever

**Author's Note:**

> just wanna give a little warning that i do not condone tattooing minors. also, stick and pokes are risky, and always take caution. if you're adults. don't tattoo kids lol.
> 
> i also like to believe ghoul has a mostly different set of tats from frank. will i ever make a fic about it? idk maybe, haven't thought about 'em all yet.

“Ghoul!” The name was repeated at nearly full volume as the Girl ran two laps around the diner’s counter.

Ghoul chuckled and leaned his jaw into his hand as he watched her until she ran out of steam. “There a fire or something?” he asked, raising a brow.

In her hands, raised as high in the air as she could go, was Party Poison’s sketchbook. “Party lemme borrow it while everyone else is out, and I wanna show you all the cool stuff I drawed.”

Excitement lit up in his eyes. “Yeah, I’d love to see! C’mon up.” He took the sketchbook from her so she could use both of her hands to climb up on the actual counter instead of one of the stools, and she plopped down and folded her legs up. “Show me what you did.”

The whole page was covered in wild scribbles of six colors; they were the only markers Party could find out here, but it was enough for her. Proudly, she pointed to a yellow upward cone-shape, and a messy swirl right above it. “I like this one because you got this one on your leg.”

Ghoul idly glanced down to the cleaner image tattooed in black at the base of his right calf. “I got that one when I was just a little older than you are now. Back when I was on my own, I found this book. A really long time ago, before Bat City existed and the Wars happened, there was this guy called Da Vinci.”

The Girl giggled. “That’s a weird name.”

“Sure is.” Ghoul poked her nose. “Anyway, he was the first guy to ever think of the idea for a helicopter. But he lived so long ago that not even electricity was invented--” He paused when she gasped. “--and he really couldn’t get it to fly.”

“That’s so old.” She stared down at her own rendition. “So why did you choose that tattoo?”

“Well, I mean...Da Vinci was probably one of the greatest inventors who ever lived. I wanted to be like him...still kinda do.” Ghoul kept his gaze down and smiled timidly. “Except a more badass version, obviously. Anyway, show me what else you made.”

“Okay. This...this is if Kobra had a pet snake. I tried asking him once but he said that’s a bad idea, which, y’know, he’s wrong. And this one is a Joshua tree, but also a bazooka. And here’s the ocean and all of us swimming together, and here’s a coyote eating Power Pup. For all the Power Pup that BLi makes, there’s a surprising lack of dogs to eat it. Isn’t that weird?”

“Yeah, that is really weird.” Ghoul just nodded along, though he was listening intently. “It’s hard for dogs to live out in the desert, hun.”

“Snakes are cooler, anyway. Can you convince Kobra to keep one?”

Ghoul snorted. “Fat chance, I’m afraid. I don’t think we really have time for any sort of pet.”

The Girl’s shoulders sagged. As she traced her finger in lazy circles around the paper, her mouth twitched. “Hey, d’you think Party would be okay if this page goes up with all the others?”

“Yeah, of course he’d be okay with it! You know how we all feel about your art. Can I tear it out for you?” When she gave him the ok, Ghoul grabbed the paper near the coil and tugged gently until it was free from the sketchbook. “Alright, go get some tape and my crutch for me, could you?”

She nodded and leapt back onto the floor to disappear in the back room, rummaging around various boxes until she found a roll of duct tape. When she returned, she also picked up the crutch from beside the mattress. “Why’d you leave it back here anyway?” she asked aloud when she got closer to him.

“Didn’t think I was gonna be movin’ around too much. Besides.” He brushed over his bandaged thigh, still recovering from a particularly ugly blast. Hence the reason he was the one to stay home this time. “It’s getting better.”

The Girl rolled her eyes and held the crutch out to him. Ghoul traded her for her colorful page, and he followed behind her as she ran into the bathroom. The wall with the sink and mirror was covered, almost floor to ceiling, with overlapping paper. The art hung up used to be mostly Party’s, with some of Kobra’s and Pony’s interlaced between, but now there were a lot more explosions of untamed doodles. The crew agreed that she improved the wall more than any of them ever could.

“Alright, where d’you wanna put it?” Ghoul asked, sucking air through his teeth. At this point, they’d probably have to overlap another page.

“Ummmm...” She tapped her chin. “I guess we can cover up Mousekat. I didn’t do a good job with that one.” Her rendition was pretty crooked, admittedly, and the caricature’s eyes were hardly even connected to the rest of its face, but Party always thought it gave him more character. She just thought it was an eyesore at this point.

Ghoul nodded and held out his free hand, waiting for her to tear a piece of tape off and stick it to the top of the page. He took it when it was all ready, and stuck it over Mousekat, immediately to the right of the mirror. “Perfect. Should we tell ‘em when they get back or wait for someone to notice?”

“I mean, it’s not exactly my best work...so they can figure it out.” She crossed her arms. “Yeah.”

“Aces.” Ghoul pet her hair. “Looks really good, though. I like the color dispersion, how everything seems kind of...even, despite it bein’ all crazy at the same time.”

She smiled at the comment. “Yeah, I guess so.” She glanced up, her gaze settling on his neck. “Hey, Ghoul?”

“Hm?”

“If you’re so afraid of scorpions, why’d you get one on your neck?”

Wanting to sit down again, Ghoul limped out of the bathroom and took refuge on the back room mattress instead. “Dr. D always used to tell me that it’s easier to try and embrace the things that scare you, because if you keep ‘em close, then the fear will eventually go away.”

The Girl sat down next to her. “How long have you had that tattoo?”

“Um, I think six years now?”

“You’re still afraid of scorpions, though.” That got a hearty laugh out of Ghoul.

“Yeah...yeah, I am.”

Her hands fiddled idly in her lap, her eyes wandering up the exposed skin on his arm. “So, uh, you’ve been inking your skin since you were my age, huh?”

Ghoul nodded, staring back at her. He could read the curiosity on her face, but waited patiently for her to speak her mind.

“And you did a lot of them yourself?”

“I mean...I didn’t actually make the art, but I did put ‘em in my skin, yeah.” He bit back a smirk.

She couldn’t help but smile mischievously back at him. “Can I get one? Please, Ghoul? I know Kobra has some, and Pony, and Cherri, and they’re so cool! I want one.”

Ghoul was fully-blown grinning at that point, though he had to take a deep breath. “Gotta warn you, Motorbaby, they do hurt--”

“I’m brave!”

“I know you are.” After another moment of contemplation, he set the crutch down completely down and minded his leg as he crawled over to his box of personal possessions, reaching for an even smaller box. “Alright. D’you have any idea what you want and where?”

She tapped herself on the left shoulder. “Right here! I want...oh wow, there’s so many possibilities. Um--” As she thought, Ghoul set the box on his lap and opened it, with a few different colored vials inside and long strips of paper she soon realized were packaging needles. “What if...what if I got all your logos? I know you just went on about keeping your fears close to you, but all I wanna keep close to me is my Killjoys.”

Ghoul leaned over and kissed her hair. “We’re always gonna be close to you. No matter what.”

She bit her tongue, very aware of how dangerous their lives all were. She wanted to tell Ghoul about how she felt better if she still had something like this, something she knew would be permanent, because Witch knew their lives really weren’t. “Everybody wants to change the world,” she started muttering, shifting her weight back a little.

“But no one wants to die.” Ghoul knew the song well enough.

“And you--  _ we _ , we are changing the world. Aren’t we?”

Ghoul silently rolled up the Girl’s sleeve. “I know. I meant what I said, though. We  _ are _ always gonna be close to you.” He pulled out a small bottle and soaked a sheet of paper towel with it to wipe her upper arm clean in small circles. “I’m gonna show you the needle now, you ready?”

“I’m not Party. I’m not gonna faint.” She straightened her posture and put on her bravest face.

He snorted again and peeled open one of the packages. The needle had three prongs at the end, and she was more fascinated than scared. “Alright, I usually tend to think it feels more like, when you get a really bad scrape in the middle of the day, when the ground is really hot. And it lasts for maybe an hour or two.”

“Lay it on me. I’m ready.” She took a deep breath, smiling to hype herself up.

He nodded and slid on a pair of clear gloves and dipped the needle into blue ink first. “Okay, I’m gonna make it kinda like a square. Party and Kobra’s symbols on top, and Jet and my symbols on the bottom. Sound good?”

“Can you switch Kobra’s and Jet’s places?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course. I’m gonna start now.” Ghoul even held his breath and made the first stick. She bit her tongue and closed her eyes at first, and he was right, it did hurt. But she told herself she’d been through worse. She would probably be through worse in the future; this was worth it. “Is it too much?”

“Nope.” She gave him a thumbs up. “Keep goin’.”

For the rest of the process, she had to take a few breaks and drink some water. He got a little afraid when her face looked a little green at some points. Usually it was when she saw various red smears on the discarded paper towels, but she kept pushing through it.

“You’re doin’ so good, hun,” he praised her by the time he finished up the last touches on Party’s pill. “Still okay to keep going?”

Before she could answer, though, they could hear the AM pulling up outside, and a whole new wave of excitement washed over her.

“Hey, try to hold still for me.” He gently stroked her lower arm. “They’ll come to us.” Of course, it had just occurred to him that he didn’t think of how the rest of them would react upon seeing their precious motorbaby with a tattoo, but it was too late to turn back now.

“Sorry.” She exhaled hard and stared forward at the wall. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Kobra appeared first through the back door, but halted the first step he took in. “You...uh, havin’ a good time there? Is that permanent?” He blinked after sliding his shades off.

“Of course it is!” The Girl smirked proudly.

Kobra gave a quiet, low chuckle. “Oh, Ghoul, Jet’s gonna fuckin’ throttle your ass.”

Ghoul hushed him without looking up from his work. “I’m concentratin’, dude. You can come look at the work so far, though.”

Kobra sighed and shrugged, then pulled off his jacket before kneeling down beside him. “Oh! Kiddo, that’s us!”

She kept still and didn’t reply verbally, but she hoped her smile said enough.

“Hey, Girlie! You’ll never guess what we found out...there...” Jet stepped into the back room with a six pack of strawberry soda dangling from one hand, but his previous excited smile melted off into blind shock.

“I begged him to do it, Jet. And I was so brave through the whole thing, you shoulda seen me!” The Girl spoke up, then she gasped. “Is that strawberry?! Can I have one now?”

“What the  _ fuck, _ Fun?! She’s ten years old!”

“What happened, is she okay?” Party appeared beside Jet in a rush of panic, then calmed, then gave a look of quiet revelation and backed up. “Not my problem...”

Ghoul’s nostrils flared. “Okay, that should do it.” He wiped over the area one more time for good measure, and leaned back to wrap up the used needle to toss later and grab his small jar of petroleum jelly.

“Do you know how easily that shit could get infected? How absolutely irresponsible this was for you to do, what the fuck were you thinking?!” Jet placed the soda down before hurrying to look at the damage. “Ghoul. Seriously. This is dangerous.”

“Just about as dangerous as every time we leave the damn diner.” Ghoul rolled his eyes. “She’s got you to keep it from getting infected.” He winced as he felt Jet’s hand slap the back of his head.

“Jet...” The Girl frowned. “Please be nice to him? You didn’t freak out this bad when Ghoul let me help operate Pansy.”

“We use Pansy to protect us,” Jet reminded her, pushing his hair back. “Bazookas and tattoos are two different things.”

Kobra raised his brow. Yeah, Jet was right, but bazookas were worlds more dangerous than tattoos.

So far, the Girl hadn’t cried, but Jet’s sudden anger was starting to make her eyes sting. “I really like it. It’s like I told Ghoul, it’s having a teeny piece of all of you with me forever. So I think you should really stop yelling at him.”

Jet eyes her hard for a few seconds, but the moment he saw a tear, he groaned and let his head droop. “Fuck...okay. Well, it’s not like we can do anything about it now. But I swear on Destroya, if I see any more on her, I’m burning that box.” He pointed to the rest of the tattoo supplies.

Ghoul clicked his tongue. “Yes, Dad.”

Jet fell silent, his jaw clenching hard. When he noticed Kobra studying his expression, he gave a small shake of his head and stood back up. “Well, since you said you were so brave throughout the process, you can have a soda.”

“Oh, wow! New doodles!” Party called out from the bathroom. “Girlie, these are sick! I like the Kobra one.”

“Oh shit, you drew me?” Kobra leaped up back on his feet to go check out the new art.

The Girl and Ghoul smiled at each other. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you in Jet’s steady hands now. Thanks for bein’ such a trooper.”

She cracked her soda open and let him have the first sip, feeling her grin return. “Thanks, Ghoul. I really do love it!”

“I’ll find some gauze to put over it. It’s best to keep your shoulder covered for a while, okay? And you let me know if it starts hurting really bad.” Jet shuffled around and found one of the bigger first aid kits.

She stared down at the fresh ink, and felt all warm inside. “I’m gonna be okay.” When Jet got close enough, she reached out to hold his hand. “I’m really happy right now.”

“Alright, I know. I’m sorry if I made you upset by yelling, but...well, you get where I’m coming from, right? I just hate seeing you hurt for any reason.” The more he looked at it, though, the more his anger ebbed away. “I love you too much to see you in pain.”

“It doesn’t hurt!” She was lying, but she’d never let him know that.

“You’re bulletproof,” he teased her, duct taping gauze down. “Okay, okay. As long as you’re okay, then...that’s all that matters.”

The Girl set her soda down so she could crawl into Jet’s lap and hug him. “I’ll always have my Killjoys with me.”

“Yeah.” Jet held her back, nuzzling her hair. “You will.”


End file.
